The divide within the NFL has already been established when it comes to Colin Kaepernick and his decision to sit during the national anthem. The 49ers quarterback is garnering more support from his fellow players than he is from the league’s executives, some of whom anonymously tore him apart when they spoke to Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman.

Freeman talked to seven executives of unclear seniority, one of whom believed Kaepernick was as loathed among the league as Rae Carruth, the former Carolina Panthers player who conspired to murder his pregnant girlfriend. The ones quoted shared the same line of thought:

“He has no respect for our country,” one team executive said. “F—k that guy.”

Another said that if an owner asked him to sign Kaepernick, he would consider resigning, rather than do it.

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“In my career, I have never seen a guy so hated by front office guys as Kaepernick,” one general manager said.

That team executive who claimed they’d quit over a request to sign Kaepernick shockingly didn’t go public, so no one can ever call their bluff. Maybe it’s bullshit and that executive doesn’t actually have any power to sign players, or maybe this executive does have the power to sign players but doesn’t want to jeopardize the future possibility of signing Kaepernick or players who agree with him. It’s an abuse of anonymity either way.

If these executives stand behind their stated beliefs, why wouldn’t they put their names to it? Maybe they just don’t have the courage of their convictions. In the NFL, you can commit career suicide by speaking your mind, with the death blows delivered by cowards who never have to show their faces.